Wizard's Beard-Four Tired Undertakers

Altsphere
2011

Wizard's Beard offer up six songs of low tuned torment. Subirse el Muerto trickles on and the music continues to stab like a dull knife for more than eight minutes. The seared throat vocals weave and bob between the music. The pace stays in one gear, but the heaviness bumps up and down enough to keep it interesting. Abandon the wolf revolves around a very simple riff and even more so if relies on the vocals which stay at a frenzied level throughout. My favorite part of this song was the agonized riffs and labored drum beats at the end that stretch the song out a bit. Daemon operates around a twisted lead riff that quickly fades away for some sparse patches of music. This song really rides on the reverb and they make a lot out of very few licks and beats. Even the normally constant vocals are used sparingly in comparison. Seeth Inside is a thick monster of a track with and edge of grief and despair guiding the way. The vocals are very effective here really pulling out as much emotion as possible. Accursed rambles on steadily with slightly more power than normal. Again just when I think the song is winding down they keep it going by spitting out just enough beats and venomous vocals to keep it going for another minute or two. Harbringer clocks in at over 11 minutes yet it's perhaps the most interesting song here. Again the writing is strong as they both control and manipulate the pace pulling you along while keeping the format simple. After this is a ghost track where you have to go almost two minutes into the running time to find it. Wizard's Beard operate on a basic format, but manage to squeeze so much out of so little by really piecing it all together and stretching it out. Also they let each not and beat echo out and get so much out of everything they put their hands on. There are some moments where the tracks bleed together a little due to the similar sounds. Overall this is a strong offering of agonized doom